Income inequality in Russia over the period of the USSR
Income inequality in Russia over the period of the USSR
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/467394
My first time trying cross-posting, hope I did this right
Source: Piketty's World Inequality Report 2022
I shared this deep in a dunk thread earlier and figured there's probably many comrades who haven't seen this data. I think it's very good rhetorically because a lot of libs have an incredibly vibes-based impression that the Soviet Union was just an Animal Farm old-boss-same-as-the-new-boss situation.
Instead, this demonstrates that Russia underwent one of the most dramatic inversions of income inequality of any country in recorded history.
For comparison here is the US over the same time period:
China:
And the UK:
It blows my mind Piketty can make that first graph and still be a lib.
But also, feel like shit, just want them back
Genuinely the most frustrating thing about reading Capital in the 21st Century (which has some genuinely good shit in it but is frustrating to read as a leftist for obvious reasons) is his continued utter dismissiveness of socialist projects.
Like it betrays such a deep lack of curiosity that you're writing The Big Book of Inequality and don't think there might be anything of interest to consider about countries that dedicated their entire political economy to the concept.
Yeah I couldn't finish it because he has terminal brainworms which limit how far he can take his analysis. He has proudly said he hasn't read Capital, and it shows.
The graphs and data he put together for Capital in the 21st century are excellent though.
That's usually when they break out the "well duh, commies want everyone to be equally poor" "argument". Also, you might wanna imply that bottleneck on charts for western countries is linked to their capitalists having to give more pittances to the workers to stop them from looking the USSR's way if you want to see some smoldering rectums.
Remember what they took from us.
Damn, not gonna lie the Chinese one is a little disappointing. But I would like to see what it looks like over the next 50 years!
I think it's also worth mentioning that the U.S. has mastered the art of writing rules and loopholes to their own favor. How many billions if not trillions of dollars of the rich that is hidden away in tax havens or those infinite shell company chains or the the like? Sort of like how the U.S. is only considered moderately corrupt when we are literally so corrupt that it is legal and normal.
Silly tankie, corruption is when the removed do it
this image depresses me.